Deal will ensure progress can continue downtown

Aces Ballpark has brought people and business back to an area just east of downtown Reno.

Despite some misgivings among members, the Reno City Council was right to approve a new deal with developers of downtown's minor league baseball park on Wednesday.

The agreement, which is essentially a refinancing of the $55 million loan that was used to build the ballpark four years ago, calls for an annual appropriation from the city equivalent to $1 million, although the city received some significant concessions with the new deal. The agreement keeps the Reno Aces for at least 30 years, gives the city credit against a loan from the developers to move a firehouse and ensures that Reno eventually will own the park.

Yes, there is good reason to be concerned that, in the short term, the money will come from the city's already stretched general fund, a reversal from the original plan for the ballpark, which was to be funded by property taxes from the Reno Redevelopment Agency.

But the recession made that impossible, and negotiating a new deal was necessary to keep the Aces in the city where, as outgoing Councilman Dave Aiazzi said on Wednesday, they have become an important part of the social fabric in their short time playing at the downtown ballpark.

Downtown finally is getting better, and the ballpark is one of the reasons why.

That was the optimistic message that the City Council heard on Wednesday from the owner of an office building located across Second Street from the ballpark. Once Harrah's headquarters and parking garage, the building had trouble attracting tenants as the section of the city deteriorated over the years. That changed with the opening of the ballpark - not just because there are 73 Triple-A baseball games across the street every spring and summer, but also because the ballpark has changed the way people look at the neighborhood just east of the casino core.

It's likely that attitudes about that part of town will change even more when Apple completes its administration building nearby as part of its plan for a server complex east of Sparks.

In fact, the same company running that office building said that it's also nearing the completion of a deal with a national chain for a new hotel, the first built in downtown Reno in many years. The attraction for the hotel chain: a ballpark, Apple, the National Bowling Stadium and, it seems likely, the prospect of a city that is moving up after years of economic woes.

If, as it now appears, the Reno economy is really on the rebound, that general fund appropriation agreed to by the City Council might not be needed for very long.

From the beginning, the prospect of a high-level baseball team in Reno was only a small part of the city's plan, just as the successful movie theater - once an object of derision by some residents - was only a small part of the plan for the Truckee River corridor. The real goal of both projects was to change attitudes about downtown Reno and attract private investment to an area that had seen little of it in recent years.

That's exactly what's happening, and the new deal with the ballpark developers is a small price to pay to ensure that progress continues.

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Deal will ensure progress can continue downtown

Despite some misgivings among members, the Reno City Council was right to approve a new deal with developers of downtown's minor league baseball park on Wednesday.

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